Integrated circuits (ICs) generate heat during operation. The generated heat causes a temperature of the ICs to increase. As the temperature of the ICs increases, performance of the ICs is impacted in numerous ways including changes in resistance and capacitance of different materials within the ICs.
Temperatures of ICs are managed using heat sinks and other cooling devices. In some instances, these heat sinks or cooling devices are controlled based on a temperature of the ICs to reduce an amount of power consumed by the heat sinks or cooling devices. A thermal sensor is used to measure a temperature of the ICs during operation to help control the temperature of the ICs. In some instances, the thermal sensor includes bi-polar junction transistors (BJTs) or resistive temperature sensors.
As a node size of devices in the ICs decreases, heat transfer from the devices to a substrate of the ICs becomes more irregular which increases non-uniformity of temperature distribution in the ICs. In addition, non-planar device structures, such as fin field effect transistors (FinFETs) have a smaller area for heat transfer to an underlying substrate in comparison with planar devices, such as metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs).